The next major release in the Star Trek franchise is a streaming movie that marks a significant milestone: Star Trek: Section 31, which will be available on Paramount+ in January and on SkyShowtime in February.
The project’s development was first announced in 2019, but it faced delays before it was ultimately confirmed as a streaming movie last year. Now, the director is sharing insights into how the project evolved and what might come next.
The development of the Section 31 television series, starring Michelle Yeoh, was first announced as a spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery during the show’s second season. A writers’ room was created with the Discovery team of Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, alongside Discovery writer Craig Sweeny.
As other Star Trek projects, such as Picard and Strange New Worlds, moved forward, Section 31 struggled to gain momentum. Ultimately, Kim and Lippoldt left the Star Trek universe to take on the roles of showrunners for Sweet Tooth at Netflix.
Despite these setbacks, executive producer Alex Kurtzman continued working on the development of Section 31 with Craig Sweeny. In a new cover feature for the January issue of SFX Magazine, we learn more about the journey toward the streaming movie.
Executive producer and director Olatunde Osunsanmi reveals that only two elements from the original pilot remain: the character of Philippa Georgiou (played by Yeoh) and a character named Alok. Osunsanmi explains the many changes the project underwent:
“It has been retooled so much, the two stories are completely unrecognizable, and Craig Sweeny, the writer, has been in the middle of that [for] the whole process. He’s been in a situation to have written – I think – seven different iterations of this.
When I say seven different iterations, the first iteration was six episodes of the first season of Section 31. The second iteration was another five episodes of Section 31 which were completely different than the previous iteration.
Then the fourth, fifth and sixth were multiple pilots that were outlines, then we had the movie, and the movie itself went through a couple of iterations.”
In Section 31, Alok Sahar (played by Omari Hardwick) is described as the “mastermind” of the Section 31 team and seeks out Georgiou for a special mission beyond the Federation.
The official synopsis reads: “Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past.”
The film also stars Kacey Rohl as Rachel Garrett, Sam Richardson as the Chameloid scientist Quasi, Robert Kazinsky as the mech-suit-wearing Zeph, Sven Ruygrok as the (possibly) Vulcan or Romulan “Maniac” Fuzz, Humberly Gonzalez as the Deltan Melle, and Miku Martineau as young Philippa Georgiou.
More Streaming Movies?
While it took Paramount+ some time to get Section 31 off the ground, the platform has done better than Paramount Pictures, which has not produced a theatrical Star Trek movie since Star Trek Beyond in 2016.
There have been discussions about the potential for more streaming movies, possibly inspired by Section 31 or other Star Trek shows, both past and present. Osunsanmi addressed this possibility directly in his interview with SFX:
“Hopefully the fans love *Section 31* and love this format, and we’re able to continue this format with other stories and be able to expand the universe so much faster, because it doesn’t have to all be television series.
It can just be one pop, one pop, one pop. If the audience – the fans – they love it, the sky’s the limit with what we can do… I think I might get into a bit of trouble if I expand upon that.
But I think as long as there’s love from the audience, there’s incredible fertile ground that was laid with Section 31 to continue to grow the franchise and grow the world. The door’s open.”
Premiere Dates
Star Trek: Section 31 is set to premiere on Friday, January 24, 2025, on Paramount+ in the U.S. and in international markets where the service is available.
It will debut in SkyShowtime markets in Europe on February 7. TrekMovie is still working on confirming release dates for other international markets.
